In a side collision, a vehicle occupant is thrust laterally toward or away from the door of the vehicle depending on the direction or location of the impact forces. The use of a frontal passenger or driver side airbag provides little or no protection against side impacts.
To provide occupant protection, side curtain airbags mounted and deployed from the roof rail provide head, neck and some upper shoulder cushioning.
In some cases, an airbag module can be fitted inside a vehicle seatback on the side closest a door. These airbags typically inflate projecting forwardly from the seatback and occupy the space between the vehicle door interior trim and the driver or passenger.
These seat mounted side airbag cushions when constructed with two panels stitched together inflate create a center bulge. This center bulging balloons outwardly applying a load on the occupant which does cushion the impact, but does so in a forward or backward or sideways direction dependent on the position of the occupant relative to the maximum expansion or bulge of the inflated airbag. This can cause the occupant to be twisted or bent on deployment.
Ideally, the occupant who is properly secured by the seatbelt assembly should not be pushed sideways by the cushion. At the onset of an accident, the seatbelt assembly with a pre-tensioned shoulder harness or strap is firmly holding the occupant against the seatback. The inflation of a seat mounted side airbag cushion that has a typical center bulge actually pushes on the occupant typically inwardly toward the center of the vehicle passenger compartment and if the occupant is pushed sufficiently extremely the shoulder harness could be dislodged. Therefore, the typical two panel side airbag cushion has a characteristic shape that creates loads on the occupant that can be non-uniform and inwardly pushing on the lower torso.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a new airbag cushion that avoids these issues and yet provides additional occupant protection.